Florida hospital won't train 3 students accused in `plot'

September 15, 2002|By Shannon O'Boye and Ardy Friedberg, Special to the Tribune. Shannon O'Boye and Ardy Friedberg are staff writers for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper.

FT. LAUDERDALE — Muslim leaders and the families of the three medical students suspected and then cleared of being terrorists were outraged to learn Saturday that the three are no longer welcome to learn at a South Miami hospital.

"It was a difficult decision," said Dr. Jack Michel, president and chief executive officer of Larkin Community Hospital. "It's not safe for them to be here--for them, for the hospital or the patients."

Michel said the hospital had received more than 100 hostile e-mails since Friday's incident, with only one telling him to "look at all the facts" before making a decision.

The three men, Ayman Gheith, 27, and Kambiz Butt, 25, both of suburban Chicago, and Omer Choudhary, 23, of Independence, Mo., were detained for 17 hours Friday after police got a tip that they might be plotting a terrorist attack on Miami. The men were released after their cars were searched.

The men, who had been overheard in a Georgia restaurant, recently completed medical training on the Caribbean island of Dominica and were driving from Chicago to South Miami for a nine-week clinical rotation at Larkin Hospital.

Altaf Ali of the Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations at first said he was considering legal action against the hospital for violating the students' civil rights. He was more measured later after Michel agreed to meet with him to discuss the issue further.

"I implored him to not make a hasty decision," Ali said Saturday from Tampa. "I reiterated to him we cannot succumb to pressure based on hate. . . . If society allows this to take place, it's setting a bad precedent for the future."

Gheith is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Jordan; Choudhary is a U.S. citizen born in Detroit, and Butt is here on a visa, reportedly from Iran.

The men could not be reached for comment Saturday, but their families reacted strongly to the news that they would not be allowed to do their medical rotation and said the students had not been notified that they were not welcome.

"He wasn't convicted of anything, and we're in America," said Abdallah Gheith, Ayman's brother. "What happened to the Constitution?"

Choudhary's father, Javed, said that "the situation used to be Americans are innocent until proven guilty. Now it's the other way around. And even after you're proven innocent some people like the CEO are not accepting that. It's extremely prejudiced and unfair."